Check out this crowd shot of the ACC Championship Game.

It's not just any "extra game" though. This extra game is against a quality opponent. It contributes to the SOS of the teams involved. Now maybe that is the only concession you want to make to the extra game but it is that. Some years the extra game adds more to the SOS than other years but every year it will add something.

 

That's a good point Aquila on FSU and Miami drawing better in Jax.

A game between the two might not be a sellout in Charlotte but throw another drivable school in the mix and you would sell a lot more tickets.

I think Charlotte's the place.

 

KP

<t>That's the risk they took going for the cash grab of a super conference. They shouldn't be rewarded for simply creating a 'super' conference.<br/>
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Had the SEC not added SCAR and Arkansas, they could play a real round-robin conference slate.<br/>
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I don't buy into this concept that the super conference is the way to go in all of this. Its all Roy Kramer's concept of 'success', its not mine and I would venture to say it isn't the majority of college football fans either. 10 team conferences with a return to the old bowl system, or even better, a move to a playoff would give you a true playoff framework that effectively and efficiently provides a systematic way of weeding through the field to answer the question 'who is #1?'<br/>
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Keep in mind, in the super conference system there still isn't any guarantee that everyone in the league plays each other.. Drop the SEC to a 10 team league, let everyone play everyone else..and then you have a TRUE SEC champion.. How can we say that LSU is better than Georgia? We can't.</t>

 

Corey,
All that you say is true, however hypothetically, how about the SEC makes a rule that the 2 teams that finish with the best regular season conference records have to schedule one more game against any team, anywhere and that whoever they schedule can have no more than 2 or 3 losses? Then we still wouldn't know whether LSU was better than Georgia but Tennessee and LSU would have had another high quality game that should increase their SOS. I agree that the super conferences have done this to themselves but at least the superconferences should get credit for scheduling one additional quality game. Since ND is not in a conference what would you say if ND came to the end of the season (before the bowls) and said "you know what, just for the hell of it we are going to play California." If you win shouldn't you get some kind of bounce out of that? Essentially that is what the superconferences are doing except they are restricting the extra game to be between the teams with the best records within the conference. No?

 

Corey, I'm not surprised you don't buy into the Conference playoff concept. but I would take issue with you about the majority of football fans, and will also say that $$$$ are a big reason for the super conferences as you call them.

I personally look forward to the SEC playoff game even though it may have some drawbacks. I like Arkansas and S. Carolina in our conference.

As far as Georgia and LSU, it's a simple concept, Georgia needed to win the East and they didn't, Tennessee did by beating Georgia soundly when they met.

I agree completely that a playoff would be better. That could be worked out with the conference playoffs still being in place.

I didn't know the PAC 10 played a round robin, that's great and it does produce a true champion. However I don't think it's the only way to go, I like the SEC Championship game.

 

That photo makes me want to hum the Dallas theme music.

Yes, I am that old.

~Matt

 

I wish the B12 would downsize to 10 teams and play a round robin schedule like the Pac10 does.

Ditch Baylor and Iowa State.

 

Can't do it Terry... they wouldn't know what to call the conference then!!

8)

 

Bill

<t>At the time of the creation of the BCS, the 'extra game schedule' wasn't on the table.. It gave the appearance that we 'needed' a super conference to weed thru the teams.<br/>
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Creating 10 team conferences and leaving the schedule length that we currently have would answer a lot of these questions.<br/>
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KP/Bill, I see what you are saying. I do. I'm not saying its without merit. At the same time, who is to say its tougher to play in the SEC East or West in a given year? A team with 2 losses may well have had a tougher road than a team with no losses. The super conference creates more potential gaps and chances to 'miss' a good conference opponent depending on rotation, while potentially creating a much tougher road for another team in the other division.<br/>
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In a true round-robin, everybody has played everyone else. If there is a tie for 2 one-loss teams, you go head to head as the tie-breaker. The regular season now counts for everything then and you maintain the entire 'the season is the playoff' situation that the BCS crock currently claims is the case. I would also stop this non-sense of 'BCS and non-BCS' conferences within the Division 1 bowl division. I mean, how many times do we need to divide this thing up without ever playing a game before we just say:<br/>
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"Look, we're going to take the winner of the SEC, Big12 that is ranked highest and pit them against each other OR whichever seems best from the Big10, Pac10, Big East, or ACC."<br/>
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This whole system reeks of Roy Kramer's underhanded old boy network crap born of the SEC's underbelly. Its done but create nothing but more controversy and bad blood. Its led to more name calling and finger pointing. It still doesn't give us a true 'national title' game.. And all the while we have to listen to pundits justify a system and insult our intellect that we 'dont get it'...because this system doesn't do what it is suppose to do. <br/>
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This system has barely maintained the 'old bowl system' as it claimed it would. Instead, its marginalized a good many bowl games that use to be significant, while creating more bowl games that mean less aside from the extra practice time it gives the kids.<br/>
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Somehow college football is suppose to 'embrace change' that makes everyone else do what essentially two conferences decided was best for themselves... A series of 10 team leagues is much easier to put together than a series of super conferences.<br/>
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You are right though, its about $$.</t>

 

Yes, I concede that, for instance, the SEC East could have the 2 best teams in a year and only one team can go to the championship game, and as you know, I favor a playoff (16 team would be great) based on polls (I think), but as long as we are stuck with this bowl system and some of us are stuck with a conference championship game we should at least get the benefit of a shot in the SOS for the additional quality win.

 

Interesting that both Ga and Fla would have been a slight favorite to beat LSU in Atlanta whereas Tenn was a 7 point dog.

Just shows that the combination of schedule, injuries and consistency play out in a conference division race much as they do in the national NC race.

So...there is a playoff in the SEC more or less and not always the best teams at the end get in.

Good example of what would happen on a national scale with limited partcipants being invited.

 

KP

<t>I see that. I was just saying this is all the doing of Roy Kramer. He insisted that everyone change the way they do business to join what he was doing in the SEC.<br/>
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Well doing things that way don't work for everyone. So rather than trying to find something that works best for all, he wants to give his system a bump AND ALSO marginalizes half of Division 1 by making it virtually impossible for them to qualify for a BCS game...let alone the NC game.<br/>
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At present, there are really about 20 to 25 teams who stand any realistic shot at all to winning the NC in a given decade.<br/>
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I think the SOS bump should be there, and it is.. It factors into the SOS I believe.<br/>
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My beef was in the media lobbying other pollsters to give the participants in that game yet another bump simply because they played in that game.. That's bumping them twice...and for what? for playing in a flawed system?<br/>
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Its not the Pac10s fault that the SEC can't find a way to decide who is better, LSU or Georgia.<br/>
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For the record, I think we west has historically been a tougher road to travel in the SEC...at least much tougher than its given credit for in the media/polls.</t>